Unless otherwise indicated herein, the descriptions set forth in this identification section are not prior art to the claims of this application, and are not to be construed as being prior art.
In a narrow sense, dinosaurs () mainly refer to terrestrial animals among the large reptiles that appeared in late Mesozoic Triassic period, prospered greatly in Jurassic and Cretaceous period, and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. In a broad sense, however, dinosaurs include pterosaurs that were active in the sky and ichthyosaurus that were active in the sea of the same period.
The word ‘dinosaurs’, which means ‘terrible lizard’, began to be used by the British anatomist Sir Richard Owen in 1841, at the British Scientific Research Conference in August 1841, to represent a large fossil bone of iguanodon found in 1825.
The dinosaurs are largely divided into two types, Saurischia with a lizard-hipped pelvis and Ornithischia with a bird-hipped. Saurischia is divided into two types: carnivorous dinosaurs walking on two legs (e.g., tyrannosaurus, allosaurus, etc.); and herbivorous dinosaurs walking on four legs (e.g., brachiosaurus, supersaurus, etc.). Ornithischia, all of which are herbivorous dinosaurs, is divided into four types: ornithopoda with long legs like birds; ankylosauria with skin keratin like armor; ceratopsia with horns on the head; and stegosaurs with tail like a knife. These characteristics of dinosaurs are very important factor in discrimination of dinosaurs.
Meanwhile, students interested in dinosaurs are increasing their knowledge of dinosaurs by learning how to identify the type of dinosaurs through the observation of fossilized bones.
Various types of dinosaur models have been produced for the purpose of understanding dinosaurs and of understanding or researching of a skeletal structure thereof, and are used for the purpose of arousing student interest.
A conventional dinosaur model is made of hollow rubber or plastic outer skin only, or in the form of integral figures filled with soft latex. Furthermore, a conventional dinosaur model is custom-made by using wooden boards or plastic plates, or simply constituted by several skeleton shapes, so there is a limitation in utilization because only a simple operation is possible.
As an example, in the document of Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2003-0074580 (published Sep. 19, 2003), there has been disclosed a dinosaur toy configured such that a skeleton is subdivided into a spinal bone, a tail bone, a head bone, front and hind leg bones, an anterior chest bone, a pelvic bone, and ribs, and each bone is processed into an individual planar block shape, wherein at least one fitting groove is formed in each bone, and the fitting grooves formed in the respective bones are engaged with each other so as to be assembled and disassembled.
Furthermore, in the document of Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0434385 (published Dec. 20, 2006), there has been disclosed a dinosaur toy configured such that a main skeleton of dinosaur is subdivided into blocks to be directly assembled, and the assembled dinosaur can be moved by using a motor and gears to stimulate interest and promote learning effect.
Since the conventional dinosaur model requires only a small number of components to be assembled, there is a limitation in that creative thinking and self-directed learning ability cannot be cultivated through the assembly process. Furthermore, the conventional model is mainly limited to the fitting of plate-shaped parts, which limits clear understanding of the anatomy of the dinosaur.
As a method for overcoming such a problem, in the document of Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2014-0053658 (published May 8, 2014) filed by the applicant of the present disclosure, there has been disclosed a prefabricated dinosaur model including: a skeleton frame configured such that a head bone part, a neck bone part, a trunk bone part, and a tail bone part are sequentially connected, and a leg bone part is joined to the trunk bone part to form a skeleton of a dinosaur; an outer skin including a head skin part, a neck skin part, a trunk skin part, a tail skin part, and a leg skin part connected to the head bone part, the neck bone part, the trunk bone part, the tail bone part, and the leg bone part of the skeleton frame, respectively, so as to form the outer skin of the dinosaur; and a connecting member interposed between the skeleton frame and the outer skin to connect the skeleton frame and the outer skin together.
The above conventional prefabricated dinosaur model is problematic in that a large number of assembly parts are excessively divided based on a realistic anatomical structure, and particularly, the connecting member for connecting the outer skin to the skeleton frame is separately provided.
Therefore, the conventional prefabricated dinosaur model requires excessive cost for a mold for manufacturing the actual parts, whereby mass production of the product is impossible, and the excessive purchase cost is passed to the consumers.